What Tangled Webs (We Weave)
by Monchy
Summary: Hunter is the one with the great idea, the one that argues that, if they're all going to New York anyway, why not share an apartment? (Later, there will also be Kurt, but Sebastian can't know that now, when he's contemplating a life constantly invaded by people.)


Warnings: This work contains the following pairings: Kurt/Sebastian/Jeff/Nick/Hunter, Kurt/Sebastian, Kurt/Hunter, Jeff/Sebastian, Jeff/Nick. Ultimately it's Kurt/Sebastian and Jeff/Nick.

* * *

**What Tangled Webs (We Weave)**

Hunter is the one with the great idea, the one that argues that, if they're all going to New York anyway, why not share an apartment? Nobody wants to be alone in a new city, after all. The other two knuckleheads agree promptly, declaring it The Best Idea Ever. Well, that's mostly Jeff, of course, always the enthusiast. Nick goes with it, because he goes with anything that makes Jeff happy, as long it doesn't imply declaring his big gay love for him in any way that goes beyond drunken kisses.

Nobody bothers to ask Sebastian. He should probably be grateful that this people want to give him the time of day after all the shit he pulled junior year. Except Sebastian would have been just fine with being alone in a new city, and he doesn't really know what to do with three roommates and a cat. And a bird, too, because he wasn't about to leave Pavarotti the Fourteenth in the careless hands of a singing freshman.

(Later, there will also be Kurt, but Sebastian can't know that now, when he's contemplating a life constantly invaded by _people._)

* * *

They get a big apartment, something that all their rich parents are happy to pay for, no questions asked. Sebastian should be grateful for that too, he guesses, except that the four of them are kind of fucked up in one way or another and there's not enough money to fix all their issues.

Two weeks into their new living arrangement (Sebastian spends long hours at the university's library, claims headaches and goes to bed early, can't help but think that the guys will hate him if they see too much of him), it starts. And it starts with Jeff.

Jeff walks into his bedroom late one night, carrying an extra pillow and not making any effort to be quiet. He all but jumps into Sebastian's bed, pushes until he has enough space to lie down, and then steals all of Sebastian's covers. Sebastian gives it two minutes (Jeff's breathing is slow, steady, and almost enough to put him to sleep), and then says:

"Jeff, what are you doing?"

Jeff turns over, looks at him and smiles. "You don't mind, do you?" His smile is all sunshine and kittens, powerful in a way no pair of lips should have the right to be.

Sebastian says, "No, I don't mind."

Next morning, he wakes up on the edge of the bed, Jeff's knees on his stomach and his hand on his face, one finger prodding inside his mouth. Sebastian licks at it, and Jeff wakes up with a whine of, "oh, ewww," quickly followed by, "Seb, you're so gross."

It doesn't stop, and the nights find them cuddling, if only because it's the only way Sebastian has found of keeping his share of the covers (he likes it, too, the shape of Jeff's thin torso under his hands, his breath hot against the skin of his neck).

On the fifth night, Jeff asks, "Do you think Nick only likes me when he's drunk?"

"Nick likes you all the time," he tells him, "he's just being an asshole about it."

Jeff becomes a permanent fixture in his bed, and Sebastian is surprised by how much he doesn't care. Maybe it's because Jeff pushes and prods, or because his smile is sunshine and kittens. (Or maybe, maybe it's that Sebastian has been alone all his life, and only now is he realizing that it was never really his choice).

* * *

Hunter forces them out on a drinking and bonding experience after Nick has spent almost two weeks avoiding Sebastian and scowling in his general direction. He uses his Captain of The Warblers voice, a fascinating tone that seems to physically capitalize spoken words.

Nick doesn't scowl anymore. He gets drunk instead, dances and acts silly and kisses Jeff, and then he kisses him again until they're a tangled mass of limbs on the dance floor, fused together as only teenagers know how to be, lost to each other.

"I thought you were sleeping with Jeff," Hunter tells him, drink in hand and eyes at half mast while looking at the pair. He looks like he doesn't understand why one would want to kiss another man, and also a little curious.

"I _am _sleeping with Jeff," Sebastian says, smirking, feeling the familiar shape and settling into it. (It's easier than smiling, less vulnerable, a tease instead of a truth).

Hunter just shakes his head, like he doesn't even want to understand, and stops looking at the pair to look at Sebastian instead. Sebastian wonders what he sees: something broken? A kid with daddy issues? Or a kindred spirit of some kind?

The end of the night finds Jeff crying against Hunter's shirt (and they all hate that, seeing Jeff cry, because he should always be sunshine and kittens), and Sebastian looking for Nick. He finds him outside, crouching on the ground, hands against his eyes. He crouches next to him, waits for the inevitable.

"I'm so fucked up, Seb," Nick says, "so fucked up." There's a sob, hidden between sweaty palms, and Sebastian puts a hand to Nick's shoulder, squeezes. "If my dad found out–I don't, I just don't know what he'd do."

Sebastian wants to say that he'll always have them, no matter what. It sounds like a platitude, an overused sentence with little meaning, but he knows it to be true. Now, after Dalton, after Ohio, with their bright new plans ahead of them in this crazy city, at least they have each other (a gallery of broken rich kids, a show and tell of little boys that are too scared to do anything but hurt everyone around them).

He says nothing in the end, though, and just squeezes Nick's shoulder yet again.

* * *

Nick shows up at Sebastian's bedroom two nights later, pillow in hand and eyes determined. He lies down next to Jeff, puts his arms around him as best as he can and closes his eyes. Sebastian gives it less than two minutes this time, promptly saying:

"Are you kidding me?"

Jeff shushes him, and when he protests mildly again, he kicks him. Sebastian grumbles, turns around and lets them cuddle. He pulls from the covers angrily, though, trying to keep a vestige of something that he can call his.

Next morning, he wakes up with Jeff curled in an awkward kind of C above his head, his own face buried in his stomach. Nick's holding onto Jeff for dear life, his leg thrown over Jeff's own and his foot barely grazing Sebastian's crotch. (And it's nice, almost, the way he thinks sleepovers should work).

* * *

They find Kurt two weeks later, a crying mess in the hallways of NYADA that Jeff just can't resist. Sebastian's there by chance, because Jeff asked him to take him out for lunch and Sebastian finds himself craving the company he would have rejected a couple of months before.

Kurt's in the middle of a screaming match with Blaine, the kind where the screams are whispers and the tears are silent (the kind that hurts the most, Sebastian knows). When he turns away from the fight, he crashes head first into Sebastian's chest.

"Oh great," he says, "the last person I need to see right now."

(It hurts a little, because he was an evil jerk who traded his issues for Kurt's anger, but he never wants to be the last person someone needs to see.)

Kurt's trembling, angry and hurt and crying, and he may not want to see Sebastian but he falls easily inside Jeff's embrace. Blaine makes as if to follow, and Sebastian turns his back to him, blocks his view of Kurt, doesn't let him see where they're going.

They take Kurt home, Jeff chatting away about NYADA like the crazy, bubbly person he is, and nearly forcing Kurt out of his self-imposed sadness. When Kurt steps away from the line of conversation and asks Sebastian what he's doing in New York, he sees it as the peace offering that it is and takes it without a second thought (veterinary school, and his dad hasn't spoken to him since, but Sebastian refuses to live a life he doesn't want).

They end the night eating ice-cream and starting a _Buffy _marathon as commanded by Hunter, Captain of The Warblers (and Kurt laughs, because everyone laughs at Hunter's histrionics, and it's pretty and wonderful). It's the first step in their silent agreement to adopt Kurt as one of their own.

* * *

Hunter joins Sebastian's unofficial cuddling nights after dinner with his parents. Sebastian doesn't know what's so terrible about them exactly, but it's not as if any of them need the specifics for wanting to hold onto their weird dynamics. Hunter stays by the door, half in and half out of the room, his tie hanging loose from his neck.

"What do you want, Hunt?" he asks, because it's not as if anybody has bothered to ask if he's okay with hosting cuddling marathons in his bed, so he doesn't see why Hunter should be the one to start.

"Is this," Hunter says, "is this like, a gay thing?"

Sebastian rolls his eyes, pats the free space next to him as he says, "No Hunter, it's not a gay thing."

Hunter shrugs and joins them then. He doesn't have a pillow, so he steals half of Sebastian's and then presses his hand to Sebastian's stomach (it's broad and warm, steady in a way few things are in Sebastian's life). He feels Nick move then, feels the way he slides down to press his face to Jeff's chest, and the way Jeff accommodates him and ends up with half his legs over Sebastian's and his hand grazing Hunter's on his stomach.

"Seb," Hunter says, quiet, as if it's a secret.

"Yes, Hunt?"

"I'm pretty sure it's a gay thing."

Sebastian sighs. (He doesn't know what it is, doesn't have a word for this thing they do, doesn't want to ponder it).

* * *

The adoption of Kurt into their tangled family is not a gradual process. Suddenly, he's always there; in _Buffy_ marathons, while they do homework, on their _drinking and bonding_ experiences, calming Jeff when Nick fucks up (and being better at it, because Kurt knows how to be kind to people that have hurt him, knows to forgive and forget and embrace).

He doesn't say much, not about Blaine, or about his choice to spend more time with them than with his usual friends. He doesn't say anything when he notices Hunter watching him, either, his eyes curious with something that almost feels like hunger, or whenever Sebastian turns his own gaze away from them both.

The first time he shows up at an empty apartment, Sebastian is the one to find him. He opens the door, doesn't ask any questions, and lets Kurt settle on the couch while he makes some tea. They catch an episode of _Buffy_ without the others, quietly (Sebastian wonders if Kurt's waiting for one of the others, if anyone would be a better choice than him), sitting close together.

It takes Kurt some time, but in the end, he starts talking. He says, "All I did was say no to his crazy marriage proposal; I don't know why that makes me the bad guy."

"It doesn't," Sebastian says immediately. And then, "He proposed? Well, isn't that lovely and creepy?"

Kurt laughs for a short second, almost happy. "Yeah." He sighs, and then sags forward. "I'm just so tired."

He looks at Sebastian then, almost pleading, looking for an answer that Sebastian doesn't have (Kurt has blue, _blue _eyes, deep and a little hurt and _so _beautiful). Sebastian does all he can think about, and pulls Kurt into his bedroom, and then into his bed. Kurt falls asleep with his face hidden in the crook of Sebastian's neck and his fist tightly wrapped around his shirt.

When they wake up, both Sebastian's hands are under Kurt's shirt, fingers spread over the fabric of a thin undershirt. They are surrounded on all sides, with one of Jeff's legs between Sebastian's, Hunter spooning Kurt and Nick lying across the bed with their feet and legs all over him.

"I don't know what's happening," Kurt whispers when he sees that Sebastian's awake.

"It happens all the time, I guess I'm just _that _irresistible," Sebastian says. "It's not like anyone ever asks me."

(And they don't maybe because Sebastian would say no, and it's easier for them to push and prod their way into his life).

* * *

Hunter's first gay kiss is with Kurt. They kiss on one of their nights out, when both of them have just a bit of alcohol in their systems and after dancing awkwardly for a few minutes. Sebastian watches them, and something in between jealousy and want jumps inside his stomach (because Hunter never wanted to kiss him, because Kurt naps with Sebastian all the time and the sight of his eyes makes something in Sebastian's heart clench). He doesn't know if he can hate them for this, doesn't know why just looking makes him feel hot all over.

Jeff catches sight of them too, and says, "Well, that's…" He trails off.

Sebastian finishes with, "Pretty."

"So pretty."

It takes the biggest effort in his life to tear his eyes away (because Kurt's hands are buried in Hunter's hair, and he wants to pry them away and to tell him to pull harder at the same time), but he does. The sight that greets him is a teary-eyed Jeff, his features tired and his tiny smile sad. It takes him two seconds to find Nick making out with some random girl on the dance floor.

They leave everyone behind at the club and walk home holding hands. When they fall down on Sebastian's bed, they're kissing, slow and deep and a little drunk.

"Jeff, maybe–" Sebastian starts (because they're drunk and tangled and Jeff's his friend and the many ways in which he could screw that up scare him to death).

"I'm in love with Nick," Jeff says, "and you have a weird secret crush on Kurt. It's okay that we need this anyway."

Sebastian can't fight that logic, so he kisses Jeff again and lets himself be pulled into another level of crazy. Jeff's long and lanky, and when he takes his clothes off, Sebastian sees that he's pale everywhere. His skin is soft to the touch, and reddens easily when Sebastian scratches softly at his thighs and stomach, when he kisses purpling marks into his neck.

Jeff moves quickly and constantly, a nervous wreck even in bed, and when he accidentally elbows Sebastian's nose, he laughs, carefree and happy (sunshine and kittens, the way it should be). They come almost together while pressing their cocks together between them, hips working a stuttery, fast and unstoppable rhythm, and breath hot and heavy against each other's mouths. When they fall asleep, Jeff's still smiling.

Next morning, Kurt walks out of Hunter's room, his hair rumpled and his eyes tired. Sebastian doesn't ask, doesn't assume, doesn't think. Still, Hunter makes breakfast for them, and Sebastian spies an apology written in his eyes (and Sebastian has to wonder if he's been that obvious, if they all know what he feels when he still feels so unsure about it). The three of them eat quietly while they listen to the mumbled yells coming out of Nick's room, where he and Jeff hid themselves at the beginning of the morning. When they come out, breakfast is gone, and there's a _Buffy_ episode already on the TV.

* * *

Sebastian chooses to push Nick against a wall when he starts avoiding him yet again. He's tired of his bullshit, of his particular kind of issues and of the way he's making Jeff feel (and he misses him, too, his quiet demeanor, his easy sense of humor, the way he seems to silently support Sebastian when he needs it).

"What the fuck is your problem?" Sebastian yells. "Too scared of telling daddy that you like cock?" He feels the venom of his voice, is surprised by how easily it still comes to him.

Nick crumbles under his stare, and says nothing. It deflates Sebastian, makes him stop and stare and renders him unable to do anything else. Kurt's the one to take the next step, gathering Nick into his arms as if he were a broken toy, and forcing him to lie down between himself and Sebastian, as if Sebastian's bed had some kind of healing magical powers. Maybe sleep does, maybe the simple way in which the five of them can tangle and untangle from each other is enough to fix them.

* * *

They settle back into their routine easily, quietly, in that way they have of adapting silently to whatever they throw at each other. Kurt brings back that night one afternoon, with his arms around Sebastian and his voice still rough from sleep.

"Did it upset you?" he asks, "That I kissed Hunter?"

Sebastian blanches, doesn't know what to say or how to explain the jumble of emotions seeing them kiss still causes him (he doesn't confess that he thinks about it sometimes, Hunter's lips pliant under Kurt's and limbs around each other). He doesn't answer, and Kurt lets him get away with it for some reason Sebastian can't fathom.

He can't stop thinking about it, though, about the five of them and the way they seem to be getting tangled into a scary web of feelings that Sebastian doesn't think they can hold together. Still, he thinks about it, and the next night the five of them fit themselves inside the couch for a _Buffy_ marathon, he finds himself hyperaware of every little touch. He's surprised by it, too, how easy it is for them to touch, how much he's seen these boys shy away from contact with others and yet how much they seem to crave each other's.

He blames it on Hunter, on his Captain of The Warblers voice and the way he inadvertently nuzzles Sebastian's neck whenever they're watching TV (and the way his lips feel against his neck, plump and wide and cushiony). He turns and kisses him, doesn't think of the others watching or about Hunter not being gay or about him kissing only Kurt. Hunter kisses back, though, hard and authoritative, as if he's giving a command, as if he's conquering his lips.

They break away and find three curious stares directed at them. Sebastian thinks about apologizing, about claiming temporary insanity, but Kurt's smiling when he looks at him, his teeth grazing lips that are curved into a cheeky smirk. Jeff's the one to move, though, always impatient, to press a quick kiss to Nick's lips before he launches for Kurt's (and he'd confessed once to wanting to do it, in the dark of the room when everyone else was sleeping).

Sebastian isn't sure how they end up naked and tangled on his bed, the five of them panting and laughing and blushing at what feels like forbidden, sinful touches. Sebastian kisses a fully naked Nick while kneeling on the bed, and his lips feel like a balm against his, like an apology and a sigh of crazy understanding wrapped up in soft skin.

Nick is strong and thick where Jeff if lanky and wiry, and the contrast of them together is beautiful to watch. There's familiarity in the way they touch, like they've done it a million times before. Nick knows where to touch Jeff to get him to melt, and he teaches and guides them into a dance over his skin that has his whimpering in no time. Sebastian meets Kurt's mouth over Jeff's nipple for the first time, and his kiss tastes of longing. He lets go into the feeling, and lets Hunter manhandle them so Kurt's straddling Sebastian's thighs.

The mechanics of it all seem complicated (so many limbs, and not even in Sebastian's wildest fantasies did he picture this), but they rub and kiss and moan, finding that there's always a free hand or mouth to touch and kiss. When the four of them gang up on him, Sebastian nearly comes undone (he hears himself mutter _too much, too much, _but he can't ask them to stop), but what brings him down finally is the softest of kisses Kurt presses right above his navel.

They leave Hunter last in some kind of silent agreement, as if they want to show him what being with another man has to offer, and he moans brokenly at every touch, every kiss, every lick. His cock tastes of sweat and skin, feels heavy between his lips, is big enough for both him and Kurt to have their way with it.

It ends with the five of them tangled together awkwardly on the bed, tired and panting and nearly half asleep, shy smiles finding their mouths now that the pleasure is evaporating.

Jeff and Nick are the first ones to leave. They do it in the middle of the night, when Hunter and Kurt are still asleep and Sebastian is merely groggily awake. Jeff presses a kiss to each of their foreheads, and Sebastian feels Nick's hand slide down his calf before they leave. Hunter is the next, unwrapping himself from between Kurt and Sebastian almost at sunlight. He presses a hard kiss to Sebastian's mouth, touches his fingertips soft and light to Kurt's cheek. Kurt looks for Sebastian blindly, wraps himself around his torso, finds the crook of his neck, and doesn't leave at all.

(It doesn't fix them, not completely. Nick fights his relationship with Jeff every step of the way, Blaine still makes Kurt cry, Hunter still tumbles into their bed when he talks to his parents, and Sebastian is constantly scared of losing everything. Sometimes they fill the bed, all five of them, a jumbled tangle of limbs, and sometimes, that seems to be enough.)


End file.
